Other player-coach duos

For a decade and a half, Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan have carried the Spurs to heights unseen in franchise, and, in some respects, NBA history.

The Spurs’ .702 winning percentage (830-352) from 1997-2012 is the best 15-year span in the NBA. So are their 792 wins together when Duncan has been on the court.

Players just don’t play for the same coach or manager their entire careers or for that long.

To repeat what Duncan and Popovich have going, Anthony Davis, this year’s top pick, and Hornets coach Monty Williams would one day need to get ready for the 2028-29 season.

Some question whether the New Orleans franchise will exist that long.

Put another way, there have been 196 coaching changes, counting the interims, since Duncan arrived in San Antonio, an average of 6.8 coaches per team.

Players and coaches reaching even a decade together is rare. The only other current ones are in the same locker room with Duncan. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are starting their 12th and 11th seasons, respectively, with Popovich.

Boston’s Paul Pierce, who has played for four coaches in 14 seasons, is starting his 10th with Doc Rivers. In Miami, Pat Riley has been a constant for Dwyane Wade as either coach, general manager or president as the guard starts his 10th season.

Express-News staff writer Douglas Pils compares the accomplishments of Popovich and Duncan with some of the NBA’s most prolific player-coach tandems:

Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan

Four NBA titles, NBA’s best record four times, six Western Conference regular-season titles, nine division titles and 50 wins for an NBA-record 13 straight seasons.

It would be all 15 seasons, but the 1998-99 lockout left the Spurs with 37 wins, a .740 winning percentage that would have meant 60 or 61 wins in an 82-game season.

Duncan has played in 190 playoff games, the most in NBA history by 10 games over the Kobe Bryant-Phil Jackson player-coach tandem.

The .702 winning percentage is not only the best in the NBA in their tenure, but the best among North America’s four major sports leagues.

Red Auerbach and Bill Russell

As great as Popovich and Duncan have been, no duo can top what the Celtics did with Auerbach and Russell. Yes, there were only eight teams in the NBA when it started and nine when it ended, but nine titles in 10 years (1956-66) is a standard that will go unmatched.

Their .719 regular-season winning percentage (554-216) only falls to .714 (636-255) when adding in their playoff totals.

Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan

Bulls fans figure that if Jordan’s father hadn’t been murdered and if the NBA’s best player hadn’t spent time playing baseball, Chicago would have won eight straight titles.

Jordan and Jackson won six in nine years together. Their only playoff losses were in seven games in the 1990 Eastern finals to Detroit and in six to Orlando in the 1995 Eastern semis when Jordan came back for the final 27 games counting the playoffs.

In their seven full seasons, the Bulls had a .772 regular-season winning percentage (443-131).

Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant

After spending a season at rest after the Bulls’ sixth title in 1998, Jackson landed the sweet deal of catching Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Derek Fisher and Robert Horry at the right time.

They won NBA titles their first three seasons together, and after Shaq left and Jackson took a year off, he and Bryant won two more (2008-09 and 2009-10).

They made seven Finals trips in 11 seasons, winning five championships.

It should be noted that Jackson’s career winning percentage (.704) is slightly better than what the Spurs have with Popovich and Duncan (.702).

Jerry Sloan and Karl Malone

Or is it Jerry Sloan and John Stockton? You can’t mention one player without the other, so this is actually a trio item.

Sloan won 775 games with Malone on the floor and 768 with Stockton running the offense. They never won the championship, losing back-to-back Finals to the Bulls.

However, along with coach Frank Layden, they led the Jazz to the playoffs for 20 straight seasons (1984-2003), the third-best streak in NBA history behind the 76ers (22, 1950-71) and Trail Blazers (21, 1983-2003).

Pat Riley and Magic Johnson

The duo reached the NBA Finals their first four seasons together and played in seven in nine years, winning four. When they won following the 1987-88 season, the Lakers were first team to repeat as NBA champions since the Russell-coached Celtics teams of 1967-68 and 1968-69.

Those “Showtime” Lakers won at least 62 games in five of those seasons, putting together a .732 regular-season winning percentage from 1981-90.